Kate Beckett: Agent of SHIELD
by Shutterbug5269
Summary: Who did Kate really work for in DC? What did Rick really get exposed to in that car? How much does she really know? Why did she really get "fired?" Can a 17 year old CENTIPEDE test subject possibly hold the key to the Clairvoyant's downfall? *cover art courtesy of Detective Angie*


**Chapter One**

**Prologue**

Richard Castle didn't know what was wrong with him. He had felt...off ever since coming home from Walter Reed in DC almost four months ago. He wasn't sure if it had been the toxin he'd been exposed to while visiting Kate...or the supposed "cure" that had apparently saved him that had caused this curious state of affairs.

An injection applied by an awkward young intern he could only identify as "Jemma" from her name badge, who had smiled nervously at him before introducing into his IV bag whatever had been in the high tech looking injector she had produced from her pocket before disappearing.

He had asked Kate to inquire at the hospital about her so he could thank her or offer to autograph one of his books for her. (he had assumed at the time that her awkwardness was because she was a fan) Only for her to find out, to his consternation and mild paranoia that Walter Reed Army Medical Center had no record of anyone named "Jemma" on their staff, in any capacity, much less the nursing or dispensary staff. Not to mention there was no trace in the hospital records, or his chart, of whatever she had injected him with.

As an author, Rick Castle had the capacity to read people very quickly upon brief association (something to which Kate could enthusiastically attest) and could sense no duplicity in the woman. She had earnestly meant to save his life. But the writer in him would not let go...there were pieces of the story that were missing...and he hated that. He had to know what was going on, why he felt...different after the Valkyrie affair.

Too many things were not adding up. The knee he had broken in Aspen no longer bothered him when it was cold and damp like it had since the cast had come off. He had gone in for a follow up X-Ray and not only was it healed completely...the doctor who had set and splinted his knee could find no sign it had ever been broken.

The scar from the minor cut in his shoulder he'd gotten from the back windshield when he'd pulled Kate out of her Crown Vic when they'd gone into the Hudson and the crease in his forehead courtesy of Jerry Tyson last year were similarly gone.

It all came back to this...Dreamland...he was sure of it.

He had thought things were going back to some semblance of normal after that case involving the CIA, at the end of which Kate had seemed far too enthusiastic about his getting a place in DC. It was almost as if she had wanted the offer to be his idea. That was until Agent McCord had knocked on his door to fire her. Kate had been genuinely shocked by that..

He had distracted from all of this after things had gone to hell in a handbasket with Alexis. The morning he was called to act as a hostage negotiator. He thought his ears had been playing tricks on him when he thought he'd heard two shots instead of one when the woman had accidentally shot him. He had just about put it out of his mind as an auditory hallucination until he was getting undressed for bed after he got home and a second bullet flattened from impact fell out of the inside of his shirt.

"Something is seriously wrong with this picture." Rick thought to himself as he palmed the bullet and hid it from Kate. She had been seriously freaked out after ESU breached the dentist's office she had seen him semi-conscious on the floor over the flattened remains of the shattered glass table. It had been the second time he had seen that look of devastation on her face since she had accepted his marriage proposal last spring. He hadn't wanted to worry her any more than she'd already been.

Kate getting her job at the NYPD back so soon after that case had been far too convenient. He didn't believe for a moment that another rich friend of the police commissioner had simply pulled strings on her behalf and got him to reinstate her...just like that. Said Police Commissioner had been far too happy to process her voluntary resignation from the NYPD after the whole Eric Vaughn thing had blown up in his face. In that guy's mind Kate had been a sexual harassment complaint waiting to happen.

He believed wholeheartedly that Kate believed it...but the man had been far too quick to replace her with Sully and then much too adamant about his "hiring freeze" story when Kate had first gone to Captain Gates seeking reinstatement. It just didn't add up. He was genuinely happy for Kate to have the job she loved back, to be sure, but it was far to easy. Far too neat.

Something was up...He just didn't know what it was.

**Somewhere in Mainland China**

S.H.I.E.L.D specialist Jackson Hunt had managed to get himself an invitation to the facility under an assumed identity. A young American doctor named Simon Tam had approached S.H.I.E.L.D. with a story that might not have been believed even six months earlier. An organization who's shell companies traced back to a group calling themselves CENTIPEDE had convinced his rather well off parents that they could cure his younger sister River of her psychological and emotional problems and then had disappeared with her several months ago.

Any other time...He would have been referred to local or federal law enforcement...but CENTIPEDE had been placed on a list of organizations that were considered "enemies of global security" so they had taken the case.

Hunt was one of the oldest S.H.I.E.L.D. specialists still active in the field, a career spanning over four decades. Longer even than Nick Fury, himself and even served as his S.O. in the field once upon a time. Taught Fury everything he knew.

This mission might been better left up to his protege Grant Ward, but Coulson had cherry picked him for a new team he had put together a few months back after he came off the disabled list. Hunt never thought he would ever see the day that Ward would become a team player...but then again he never thought that Melinda May would ever go back into the field again after Bahrain either.

"Getting in was easy enough," Hunt thought to himself, "getting out's gonna be a bitch."

The mission parameters were simple. Get in. Figure out what CENTIPEDE was up to...steal any files he could find. Get back out. River and Simon Tam were not a priority.

That plan went straight out the window as soon as he saw the girl, however.

He had a reputation as a cold, calculating hard charger with a complete lack of sentimentality. It was almost common knowledge that he had abandoned his family to join S.H.I.E.L.D., one of many reasons he worked best alone. He had even overheard whispers around The Hub that he was the "world's only living heart donor" the exact opposite of Phil Coulson.

His most closely guarded secret,however, was that he cared deeply about the family he left behind, and it left him with a soft spot for kids and young mothers in trouble. A soft spot he took great care to bury deep and keep hidden. River Tam had struck that chord full force.

River could not have been much younger than his granddaughter Alexis. He couldn't help but see his son's little girl when he saw her, which immediately caused a shift in in his priorities...moving getting the girl to safety higher up the list. The chart on the door to her exam room listed her as a powerful empath...her skills off the charts and that they were in the opening stages of turning her into one of the super soldiers they had been creating.

He had to get her out of here.

When his private tour returned to her part of the facility he looked directly at her and thought very clearly about his son. His face...His name...where he lived. Along with a single thought

**STAY WITH YOUR BROTHER..FIND MY SON. HE WILL HELP YOU. TRUST NO ONE ELSE.**

If they got separated in the chaos she would find his son. His fiance, Kate Beckett was a former S.H.I.E.L.D. trainee who had washed out of the Level 3 program when her security clearance had been pulled after she'd gone to the press to protect a crime victim from the machinations of a CIA agent acting outside of his organization's mandate.

He had personally pulled some strings to get her her job at the NYPD back. (S.H.I.E.L.D. had dirt on just about everybody) As a former level 3 trainee...she would know whom to contact to get River to "The Hub" for treatment and evaluation. Until then the poor girl would be in grave danger.

_"Time to move" _Hunt thought to himself, as he snapped a guard's neck, took his weapon and opened fire, triggering the explosives that cut the power to River Tam's containment unit along with every unit on her floor. Once Simon got his sister out of there, the rest would be up to his son.

He knew that once the girl and her brother were out of the facility he would be able to extricate himself with much greater efficiency. Until then...he was expendable.

_"Situation normal...all fucked up" _


End file.
